NCCA uses cookies so that you have the best possible browsing experience on our website. If you agree that we can store and use cookies just click "Accept and Close"
or you can learn more about cookies.

Scientific Literacy

One of the aims of this specification is to help students to develop their scientific literacy. The PISA 2015 Draft Science Framework includes the following definition for scientific literacy:

Scientific literacy is the ability to engage with science-related issues, and with the ideas of science, as a reflective citizen.

A scientifically-literate person is described as someone who is willing to engage in reasoned discourse about science and technology. This requires them to be able to explain phenomena scientifically, evaluate and design scientific inquiry, and interpret data and evidence scientifically.

Scientific literacy

Explain phenomena scientifically

Students will recall and apply appropriate scientific knowledge to identify, use and generate explanatory models.

Understand scientific inquiry

Students will distinguish questions that are possible to investigate scientifically; propose a way of exploring a given question scientifically; pose testable hypotheses and evaluate and compare strategies for investigating hypotheses.

Interpret scientific evidence

Students will engage critically in a balanced review of scientific texts. Through this they will learn to identify the assumptions, evidence and reasoning in science-related texts, and distinguish between arguments which are based on scientific evidence and theory, and those which are not.